Penn Staters Show Off For NFL Scouts At Pro Day

The Penn State football team hosted its annual Pro Day today, bringing in scouts and coaches from an assortment of NFL teams as 11 players took to the field at Holuba Hall. Allen Robinson was the center of attention at the workouts and is the highest projected pick out of Penn State heading into May’s NFL Draft.

Robinson was happy with how things went at Pro Day, which brought in Mike Tomlin and Chip Kelly, the head coaches of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles respectively. He measured in at 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds, down from the 220 he hit at the Combine. He said that he felt most comfortable at his college playing weight of around 214.

While Robinson didn’t have an official time on his 40-yard dash just yet, he was told it fell somewhere between 4.42 and 4.47 seconds, a marked improvement upon the 4.60 second dash he ran at the Combine.

Robinson said on Tuesday that he trained at the Performance Compound in Tampa, Florida and has signed with agent Eugene Parker, who represents Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Curtis Martin in addition to plenty of current NFL players.

Photo: Zach Berger/Onward State

“I would say that being a lot more efficient getting in and out my breaks, concentrating on the catch first and staying locked in on the catch and finishing after has been my main focus football-wise,” Robinson said. “I think I made the right decision to declare. I’ve seen a lot of improvement in myself as a player and I’m real comfortable with the decision I made.”

He added that he has workouts scheduled with a number of NFL teams, but wouldn’t go into specifics on what teams are interested in him.

Other Nittany Lions at today’s Pro Day included Adam Gress, Glenn Carson, Garry Gilliam, DaQuan Jones, Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, Malcolm Willis, Brandon Felder, Alex Butterworth, Matt Lehman, and John Urschel. Jones will likely be the second Penn Stater off the draft board in the third round or so, according to analysts. Carson and Urschel are both projected to be late-round picks.

“I was pleased with it. It went real well,” Urschel said of Pro Day. “I took a little bit off of my 4o time. The individual drills went well for me and I showed I could snap both under and in the gun. Leading up to today, I was just working on speed and explosiveness. I talked to a lot of coaches and scouts and heard a lot of positive things. From here on out until the draft I’m just going to hit conditioning hard.”

“I’ve just been working on cardio and explosiveness,” Jones said on his preparation. “I was just really trying to take care of my body leading up to this. I just came in here and tried to focus and kill it and that’s all it was. All it comes down to is working on technique stuff like hand speed and footwork.”

While there isn’t an official list of teams that sent representatives to Penn State’s Pro Day, the ones spotted following the afternoon workouts were from the Steelers, Eagles, Giants, Jets, Redskins, 49ers, Packers, Broncos, Saints, and Lions. Assistant Communications Director Tony Mancuso confirmed that there were 26 total teams in attendance.

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Zach Berger is Onward State's Managing Editor. You can find him at the Phyrst more nights than not. If he had to pick a last meal, Zach would go for a medium-rare New York strip steak with a side of garlic mashed potatoes and a cold BrewDog Punk IPA. You can reach him via e-mail at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theZachBerger.